Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible

[emad]

Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent



THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.

The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.

“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say in The Gift of Scripture.

The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of the religious Right, in particular in the US.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811332,00.html

[tk2kewl]

1. this is an unexpected surprise from a church that seems by all accounts

to be moving to the right.

[kweerwolf]

2. This won't matter to the fundies ...

... they will, however, use it as further "proof" that Catholics aren't real Christians.

[rkc3]

4. My Presbyterian wife would agree.

Every time we talk about religion she reminds me I'm not a Christian, but a Roman Catholic.

The best so far came from one of my colleagues (a minister and an avowed RW nutter) - "Jesus did not found the Catholic Church, it was the Church of Christ."

11 years of Catholic education, down the shitter with one sentence - no wonder I'm so lost.

[CatholicEdHead]

7. That is exactly what they are saying

on Catholic World News http://www.cwnews.com right now.

[zalinda]

3. When I was in Catholic school

the bible was always discounted. There was the Catholic bible and the King James version. Even the Catholic bible was not recommended. We had our Epistle (Catholic prayer book) and that was pretty much all you needed.

zalinda

[HockeyMom]

8. Catholic school too

The Bible was meant to teach a lesson, not to be taken as literal fact. They said that back when I was in school in the 50s and 60s. This is nothing new.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. It is NOT timely, it is about a thousand years late

Galileo paid a heavy price because this teaching document is centuries late, and he is far from the only one.

[jackster]

6. yea like the part

in Timothy where it says a bishop should be a man of one wife.....

[Vietnam68]

9. Hmmmm

Interesting...

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school and this doesn't

surprise me in the least.

We didn't even study the Old Testament in school - only the gospels in the New Testament.

[Sgent]

11. A goodly part of the Reformation

was that Luther thought the bible inerrant, and people should read and interpret on their own. The Catholic's disagreed.

The last time I checked, Catholics believe the bible is inerrant -- but also that the only one qualified to interpret it definitively is the church hierarchy. As far as I know, this has been true since the Nicean Creed.